Review: News Blues by Marianne Mancusi

Reviewer: Holly
News Blues by Marianne Mancusi
Publisher: Love Spell
Publication Date: 2008
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 309
Add It: Goodreads
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When she is finally promoted to investigative producer and partnered with the station's sexy new photographer, former moviemaker Jamie Hayes, Maddy Madison finds her good fortune marred by Jamie's impending marriage (not to her) and annoying narcisstic anchor Terrance Toller. Original.

I’ve been hearing a lot of great things about Marianne Mancusi and now I know why. News Blues was a wonderful, light, extremely humorous book. I was drawn in from page one.

Maddie is a hilarious character with a dry sense of humor that comes across the pages perfectly. Whether she’s obsessing over finding the perfect Kate Spade knock-off, her animalistic attraction to her sexy new photographer, Jamie, her parents deciding to separate after too many years together to count, or her baby sister who seems to be dealing with the divorce in a not so healthy way, her inner thoughts are hilarious.

When she’s in Tijuana trying to buy a fake Kate Spade (unfortunately not one with a sewn on label) she gets a tip about a big drug trafficking ring that’s going on. Since her new position as “investigative producer” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be (her first big story is “Cosmetics that Kill!” only..they don’t really kill), she decides to investigate this new tip on the sly, with the help of her hottie photographer Jamie.

But investigating a drug cartel isn’t as easy as she thinks. And neither is hanging out with her sexy photographer and keeping her hands off him (he is engaged after all). Stolen motorcycles, getting stranded out in the middle of the desert, accidentally taking Ecstasy, letting her younger sister move in with her, only to realize she’s a big party girl…well, all these things add up to a hilarious tale.

There was some depth to it as well. Jamie’s struggle to do the right thing (by staying true to his fiance and not falling for Maddie), Maddie’s struggle to deal with her parents separation (and the fact that her father has knocked up a girl her own age) and her younger sister’s struggle with drugs.

I liked Maddie’s character, but feel she was a bit on the shallow side. Not enough to turn me off, but enough to make me scratch my head over it. And though I should have been bothered by Jamie being engaged to another woman while falling in love with Maddie, I wasn’t. I think the author did a fantastic job of showing us his inner struggle – especially since this was written in the first person and we never saw things from his POV.

I did struggle a bit towards the end, however. There’s a major conflict that arises between Jamie and Maddie that sends her running..and I just didn’t understand why it was such a big deal. I don’t want to spoil it for those of you who want to find out for yourselves, so highlight the text below if you’re interested:

Jamie breaks things off with his fiance and he and Maddie are all set to live HEA together. But then the fiance turns up pregnant and Maddie flips out and breaks up with him. The thing is, he got the fiance pregnant before he and Maddie hooked up, so I don’t see why it was such a big deal. Maddie feels betrayed, and wonders if Jamie will end up leaving her to be with his ex – you know, the whole “We need to be a family thing”. But instead of her fears seeming real, I just felt she was acting childish and shallow. So what if he was having a baby with someone else? It’s not like they were going to get back together. Just didn’t work for me.

Despite the couple issues I had, however, I’d highly recommend this book. Those of you who enjoy Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series will love this book.

4.0 out of 5

This book is available from Dorchester on February 27th (I believe). You can pre-order it here and here.

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